Obama?

[bayer40601]

I'm so sick of people blaming the schools for everything, when some of the students have absolutely no guidance at home.

Amen and amen.

[sailorgirl]

Voucher, charters, doesn't matter. If a teacher is out of the classroom for any reason...learning does not take place. Where ever your kid learns, take count of your teacher's absences. You will be amazed. Trust me. One out of seven years of your child's education is taught by a substitute teacher. Pretty remarkable stats. Brought to you by Utah State University Substitute Institute.

So teachers are not allowed to get sick, have a family emergency or maybe just take a mental health day. My husband is a teacher and I have a renewed respect for how demanding the job is. How many of you have teenagers at home. Now multiply that by 100-150 and you have an idea of what his days are like.The din in the school is simply deafining, he spends as much time keeping order as teaching math. He's been threatened and physcially attacked. He and his fellow teachers are at school by 7:30 and finish by 4:00. Then every night there is at least 2-3 additonal hours of work, grading, calls to parents, continuing education requirements, administrative duites, committee meetings... A good part of at least one day on the weekend is also devoted to lesson planning and more grading. He works a minimum of 60 hours a week and is not remunertated nearly enough. We need to lift all schools, not just some of them. Public education is the foundation of this country. Its broken and needs to be fixed. Lets not blame the hard working under paid teachers.

Your husband should be commended for the hard work he does. Now let's make his life easier. Get rid of those students, yep get rid of them. And let's get rid of those lousy teachers that make it more difficult for your husband.

Edited to say also get rid of the lousy administrators.

Admittedly my sample group is quite small but my husband's fellow teachers are a very dedicated bunch. The law of averages would suggest that they are not unigue. He has a wonderful principal who is trying her hardest to bring up what was a failing school. She is past retirement so her philosphy is I'm throwing out the rule book, if Home office objects too bad... nothing they can do to me. Shhe's ahd some notable successes but sometimes it's one step forward two steps back. Teaching was a mid life carrer change for my hubby and he has never been happier.

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[cypressgirl]

Here are some interesting facts from the IRS:

The top 1% pays 40% of all income tax
The top 5% pay 60%
The top 25% pay 68%
The top 50% pay 97%
The bottom 50% pay 3%

Barack says he's not going to raise capital gains taxes on small businesses. Small businesses don't pay capital gains tax, only income tax.

He says the "rich" don't "need" all their money. So who gives him the right to decide who "needs" how much money? And who gives him the right to take more money from hard working people who were willing to put blood, sweat, tears, and risk, into their success?

By the numbers above, I think most of us are paying more than our fair share. If anyone thinks they "need" to pay more to be patriotic, the IRS will happily cash their check.

Income redistribution will destroy Capitalism, but then again, a thinking person would figure out that was his plan all along. I am pretty sure that bottom 50% who pay 3% of the total tax revenue are going to vote for Barack. They have everything to gain and nothing to loose. I'm amazed McCain is as cloose as he is in the polls. Democrats pander to people who want something for nothing and resent successful people. They'll have buses running to take the homeless to vote. Why is that, I wonder? Would they do that if they thought they weren't going to get all their votes? Of course not. They don't realize that successful people are the people that hire them. They just hear a guy that promises them the world..... free health care, college tuition, etc., etc. etc. I thought the Constitution guaranteed us the right to persue life, liberty, and happiness. I missed the part about all the freebies.

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[cypressgirl]

Oh, how stupid of me. I knew that. Sorry for the "Biden" slip-up.

[chicagoans]

A Republican: someone who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.

A Democrat: someone who thinks we should all stand on second base because it's not fair that some people are better at baseball.

(Me: just a Cubs fan crying in my beer. )

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[Terry]

You all are not understanding my point. I support public education. But my question is why are teachers, who are only paid for 182 days a year, aloud 11 days of annual leave plus unlimited days of professional development days off, plus any accrued days off per year, not to mention holiday days off. They are well educated, in our district, the majority have a MA + 40 hours and many have a doctrin. The teacher's union has allowed them to take so many days off the job, with pay. But by doing doing so a sub teacher is trying to take their place and is not able to carry on a days worth of teaching.

It's only hurting our child's education. That is my point. Do you get it?

At this point keeping up with the NCLB law is a mute point.

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[Terry]

I hear ya. I have stayed in PERA for one reason only. Retirement. Your mom is a momument. I only wish todays educators were of her caliber. I know that some are, but there are some that are not. That makes me sad. I see it everyday.

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[soxfan22]

The difference is they were the sharp women who today are now in upper management roles in corporate America.

Oh boy...Prepare for the onslaught...

[soxfan22]

As a father who has a son who just entered kindergarten at the age of 4 (turned 5 last week), he can read, count money...

A good little capitalist. My son is 3 and cannot count money yet (he can count to 10)...Gonna work on that this week.

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